Dear Daddy,
I was really struggling to get out of bed today to write you. I kept telling myself, "It does not matter. An invisible, intangible god. What evidence is there that he receives the letters?" But then I thought that these are the types of thoughts that precede an emotional downward spiral, which I want to avert. Plus, bedtop reasoning is notorious unlucid, so I decided I had better get out of bed.
I watched a video on Sunday that talked about renewing the mind. The speaker talked some about biology and how You designed my previous decisions to be stored in my brain as ACH-encoded patterns. Once in a pattern is encoded, it is very easy to follow that pattern again in the future. And the more I follow that pattern, the easier again it is to follow it. Thus, a model to understand "wrestling with the flesh" is that of struggling to make decisions contrary to ungodly, ACH-encoded patterns. If that was all there was to the model, it might be illuminative, but not hopeful. But there is another aspect where Your grace shines through. You design the brain to be self-monitoring and to notice long-term decisions consistently contrary to an existing the ACH-encoded pattern. When it notices this, it uses another chemical named GABA to block the old pattern so that the old pattern ceases to be the easy pattern. This is a biological example of what it means that You come along side of those who have chosen to obey you. Of course, obedience is the prerequisite; otherwise, the brain will not notice that having the old pattern around is inefficient and setup a GABA roadblock to it.
So, thank You for encoding Your grace into my biology, and thank You for allowing me to hear this picture of Your grace. Please now, enable me to recognize the old destructive patterns of thinking and obediently to think in a different way. I know that as I do this, You, my loving Father, will come alongside and help me.
Love,
Philip
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Trinity Prayer
N. T. Wright wrote an article proposing a liturgical prayer: http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Prayer_Trinity.htm
I thought it was useful, so I reproduce it here along with my Chinese translation:
Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth:
Set up your kingdom in our midst.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:
Renew me and all the world.
全能的父，创造天地的主：
在我们当中建立你的国度。
主耶稣基督，又真又活之神的儿子：
怜悯我，这个罪人。
圣灵，又真又活之神的气息：
更新我及全世界。
I thought it was useful, so I reproduce it here along with my Chinese translation:
Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth:
Set up your kingdom in our midst.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:
Renew me and all the world.
全能的父，创造天地的主：
在我们当中建立你的国度。
主耶稣基督，又真又活之神的儿子：
怜悯我，这个罪人。
圣灵，又真又活之神的气息：
更新我及全世界。
Love Letter 3
Dear Daddy,
Thank you for causing Amy to say some things yesterday in the Areopagus Forum that opened my eyes to You. She was trying to persuade Paul that "being thankful" in itself is inadequate; thankfulness needs to be directed toward a person to be complete. This I knew, for I have used this line of reasoning before when trying to raise other's awareness of You. But then she listed examples of things for which we should be thankful to You: free oxygen; free sunlight; free use of my brain, body, etc.; and life itself. I was a little shocked. I had not thought to thank You for these things. In fact, inwardly I probably faulted You for giving me life since I do much like living. But seeing that You have given me these things, if I am unthankful to You for them, then I am remiss--regardless whether the reason is that I don't see them as good things or that I see them as good things but do not emotionally trace their origin back to You. I do believe that You are good (at a cognitive level), so I am willing to concede to You that the gift of life is good and that I am just blind to this fact right now. Please open my eyes to this. Please help me to see things from Your perspective, from the perspective of truth. Deliver me from the blindness of Gomer: "She did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold" (Hosea 2:8)
Thank you that You have enabled me to see that You are actively at work to renew my mind on this point. You helped me to notice that that was the second time this week when someone's words about Your providence arrested me. The other time was after I had vented to Simon about how distant You were from me. He asked me, "If I squeeze your nose and cover your mouth, how long could you live?" When I said, "At most four minutes," he responded, "Then God is at least that close to you." The fact is that it is on a second-by-second basis that I rely upon Your providence. If You withdrew Your hand for a second, I could not continue to live, much less if You withdrew for four minutes. I am reminded of what Paul said, "Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for 'in him we live and move and have our being.'" (Acts 17:27-28)
I think You caused Amy to say something recently to me linking breathing and the practice or realization of Your presence. I already forgot the sentence, but thank You for providing breathing as a tangible evidence of Your presence. Please help me recall You with each breath I take today that I might walk more experientially in Your presence.
Love,
Philip
Thank you for causing Amy to say some things yesterday in the Areopagus Forum that opened my eyes to You. She was trying to persuade Paul that "being thankful" in itself is inadequate; thankfulness needs to be directed toward a person to be complete. This I knew, for I have used this line of reasoning before when trying to raise other's awareness of You. But then she listed examples of things for which we should be thankful to You: free oxygen; free sunlight; free use of my brain, body, etc.; and life itself. I was a little shocked. I had not thought to thank You for these things. In fact, inwardly I probably faulted You for giving me life since I do much like living. But seeing that You have given me these things, if I am unthankful to You for them, then I am remiss--regardless whether the reason is that I don't see them as good things or that I see them as good things but do not emotionally trace their origin back to You. I do believe that You are good (at a cognitive level), so I am willing to concede to You that the gift of life is good and that I am just blind to this fact right now. Please open my eyes to this. Please help me to see things from Your perspective, from the perspective of truth. Deliver me from the blindness of Gomer: "She did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold" (Hosea 2:8)
Thank you that You have enabled me to see that You are actively at work to renew my mind on this point. You helped me to notice that that was the second time this week when someone's words about Your providence arrested me. The other time was after I had vented to Simon about how distant You were from me. He asked me, "If I squeeze your nose and cover your mouth, how long could you live?" When I said, "At most four minutes," he responded, "Then God is at least that close to you." The fact is that it is on a second-by-second basis that I rely upon Your providence. If You withdrew Your hand for a second, I could not continue to live, much less if You withdrew for four minutes. I am reminded of what Paul said, "Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for 'in him we live and move and have our being.'" (Acts 17:27-28)
I think You caused Amy to say something recently to me linking breathing and the practice or realization of Your presence. I already forgot the sentence, but thank You for providing breathing as a tangible evidence of Your presence. Please help me recall You with each breath I take today that I might walk more experientially in Your presence.
Love,
Philip
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